Corruption at the Ministry of Health
I thought the first time I'd interact with corruption, I'd be the one benefiting. Picture me at KICC, and there's some cash (in the hundreds of millions) being offered to me to approve some deal.
This doesn't mean I'd engage in corruption. I wouldn't. I'm just a web developer offering services to clients. Willing buyer, willing seller.
Anyway.
I'm 26M, and I was at Afya House collecting my posting letter. I had been placed at a particular hospital in Kasarani as a Medical Officer Intern. I wasn't thrilled with the placement, so I wanted to swap with a colleague who had been posted to a different centre outside Nakuru. (Names withheld because I'd rather not dox myself.)
Swapping internship centres is supposed to be a free process, as long as both parties agree. All you need is your National ID, a swap request letter, and your initial placement slip.
So I did exactly that.
On arriving, though, they kept sending me back and forth between MOH and KMPDC. I kept getting conflicting messages, including, "Swaps are not being carried out."
Eventually, I gave up.
I relocated to Kasarani and started house hunting. That same day, I received a call telling me the swap was actually possible... but I'd have to part with KSh 20,000.
Mind you, I'd already spent about three days in a cheap Airbnb in the CBD (KSh 1,900 per night), and my expenses had already shot past KSh 10,000. I was literally in the middle of house hunting and had narrowed it down to three studio apartments in the KSh 12k–14k range.
I told the caller I couldn't accept that. I said I was already settling into Kasarani, and moving now would just inconvenience me.
His response?
"The swap has already been effected. Your name is no longer registered at the Kasarani facility."
Anyway, I had no option.
For a second, I considered reporting to the new facility and simply refusing to pay the guy at MOH. Then I imagined him getting annoyed and somehow switching my posting to Garissa.
So I called my swap mate and told him we needed KSh 20,000. I couldn't even afford to split the cost because my budget was already stretched. He offered to pay the whole amount, on the condition that I'd refund him in about a month.
I went back to Afya House from Kasarani, collected the new posting letter, and eventually paid KSh 15,000 after they "kindly" bargained the figure down from KSh 20,000.
I'm now en route to the other centre.
I fucking hate that I enabled corruption. I hate the gut punch of realizing that I thought I was above being a victim of it. And I hate imagining what other people have to go through.
Fuck Kenya.
I'm actively working on a plan to leave this fucked-up country.